Subconscious
by Sierra Janeway
Summary: Elliot and Olivia respond when a teenage girl is attacked by a serial rapist. Her medical exam, however, brings another crime to light and starts them on a complicated path for justice…   *Updated!*
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: All original characters and such belong to NBC. I own the characters I created as well as the new plot._

**Summary: **Elliot and Olivia respond when a teenage girl is attacked by a serial rapist. Her medical exam, however, brings another crime to light and starts them on a complicated path for justice…

**Chronology: **No specific time; current season possibly

**Pairings: **None right now.

**Rating: **T for situations and probably some mild cursing.

**Author's Note:** Those of you who have read my other stories, I apologize once again for throwing a new story at you. But the idea wouldn't leave me alone, and I'm trying to get at least one fanfic written for each of my favorite shows. It's going to be a while before that happens, but I wanted to let you know that the new material's going to keep coming. In my defense, I am forcing myself to update **each** of my already established stories whenever I do an update.

This is my first entry into the world of SVU fanfiction, so please be gentle. :) I've watched most of the show up through season five as 'research' (it may have also had something to do with the fact that I'm ignoring several papers that need written, haha), and hopefully I've managed to capture the feel of the series. Reviews are greatly appreciated!

* * *

**Subconscious**

_Lenox Hill Hospital_

_100 East 77__th__ Street_

_Tuesday, May 3_

_6:47 a.m._

"Your message sounded urgent. So where's the fire?" Elliot Stabler asked as he entered the hospital's lobby.

Olivia Benson stood waiting for him, her short chestnut hair somewhat disheveled, her coat draped over one arm, holding two cups of coffee. She handed one of them to her partner, who took it gratefully. "Teenage girl was attacked about twenty minutes ago just outside Carl Schurz Park."

"How bad?"

"He didn't rape her, but he sure tried, until she fought back. Then he smacked her upside the head and took off."

"That what the girl told you?"

"Not me, the admitting nurse. The girl's getting x-rayed right now. She was complaining of head and chest pain from the attack."

"She got a name?"

"Not yet. All she's told the nurse is that a guy tried to rape her, she fought back, he hit her, and then took off, all about twenty minutes ago. Apparently she was in bad enough pain that they didn't press her for more info, just took her in for x-rays, started collecting evidence from the attack, and called us."

"So now we wait."

"Now we wait," Olivia agreed.

* * *

_Lenox Hill Hospital_

_100 East 77__th__ Street_

_Tuesday, May 3_

_7:02 a.m._

"Detectives?"

Olivia and Elliot turned to see a young African American nurse waving them over to the main desk. Her nametag said Louisa.

"How is she?" Olivia asked.

"Dazed, and in pain, but she's coherent and remarkably calm given what just happened to her. We took x-rays and ran a rape kit, and she's resting in a recovery room. You can talk to her now."

"She tell you anything else about the attack?"

"No, but she did let us know that her name is Sophie Morse and she's fifteen years old."

"Ok…can you tell us anything initial from the rape kit?"

"No penetration, but we did get what looks like semen off the thigh of her jeans. Got skin from under her nails, and we found a couple hairs that are too short and the wrong color to be hers." She handed the kit to Stabler as she pointed to the left side of the hallway behind them. "She's in the third room over there."

They thanked her and found the room she had indicated.

A light-skinned, freckled teenage girl with pale blue eyes very long light brown hair looked up as they entered.

"Hey Sophie," Olivia greeted her softly. "I'm Detective Olivia Benson, and this is my partner, Detective Elliot Stabler." They showed her their badges. "How are you feeling?"

"I've been better," she replied with a smile.

"I'm sure you have." Olivia returned the smile. "Do you feel up to talking about it?"

"Yeah."

"Would you be more comfortable if Detective Stabler left the room?"

"No, that's ok." Sophie shifted on her pillows so that she sat up straight. "It wasn't all that bad, considering what I've seen on TV."

Olivia took a seat next to the bed and Elliot stood behind her. "The nurse told me that you're still kinda dizzy, so if you need to stop, you just say so."

"Ok."

"All right." The detective flipped to a clean page in her notebook. "Just start from the beginning and take your time."

Sophie nodded and tucked a string of loose hair behind her ear. "I got to the park around six this morning."

"Why so early?"

"I like to go jogging before traffic gets really crazy. The park's not too far from our apartment, and it's in a busy enough place that it's safe. Well, usually…" She paused for moment, clearly more shaken by what had happened than she was letting on.

"It's ok, Sophie. This isn't your fault."

The girl nodded again and raised a shaking hand to wipe away a tear. "I, uh…I'd been jogging for about twenty minutes when this car pulls alongside me. This guy rolls down his window and yells hi. I had my iPod going so I pretended not to hear him at first, but then he yells something about needing help, so I took out one of my earbuds. He tried to make conversation, then said he needed directions. I told him I was really bad at that kind of stuff and apologized and tried to keep going, but that's when he jumped out of the car and grabbed me."

"Do you remember what kind of car it was?" Elliot interjected gently.

"A big SUV, dark blue or dark green, pretty sure it said GMC on the grill. The first letter on the license plate was an R and it ended with a 3."

He wrote it down on his own notepad. "That's good, that's really good Sophie."

"What happened after he grabbed you?"

Sophie looked up at Olivia and drew a shaky breath. "He…he tried to pull off my pants. I kept yelling 'No! Stop!', but he wouldn't. He just kept telling me to shut up. He kept grabbing at my clothes and I kept trying to fight him off. He slammed me against the ground a couple times, and my ribs hurt really bad, but I just clawed and kicked and screamed as hard as I could. I was afraid he was going to kill me." She stopped for a minute to collect herself. "Eventually he…he, uh, punched me in the head," she indicated a large fist-sized bruise on her right temple "and grabbed my iPod and took off in his car."

"Did you notice what way he went?" Elliot asked.

"I was pretty out of it, but from the way his tires screeched, it sounded like he pulled a U-turn and went back the way he came, north on East End Avenue."

He nodded and added it to his notes.

"Can you describe the man?"

"Yeah…" She frowned in concentration. "White guy, late twenties to early thirties, really short blond hair. Not a military haircut, but kinda like that. He had…grey eyes, I think, and round glasses with silver frames. Is…will that be enough?"

"You did great Sophie," Olivia assured her with a smile. "Thank you."

The teenager let out a long breath. "That'll help?"

"Absolutely."

"One more thing…" Elliot added slowly. "Can you…remember _exactly_ what he was saying to get your attention?"

"Like I said, I had my iPod going…"

"Just give it a shot."

"Well…he yelled hey and hi several times…he might have called me pretty girl, or cute girl. Umm…he, uh, said he was lost because he had taken the scenic route and needed to get back to the main part of the city. Then he asked for directions. That was it before he attacked me." She looked up at the officers. "I'm sorry, that's all I can remember. It just happened so fast…"

Olivia and Elliot shared a look.

"That's ok," Olivia responded after a few moments. "You're a brave girl, Sophie. That should be a big help. My partner and are I need to make a couple calls, so we're going to step outside for a minute. We'll be back soon just to check up on a couple of things, but we're right around the corner if you need us before that, ok?"

Sophie nodded and they exited the recovery area, pulling the door almost shut behind them. They stepped around the corner and visually gauged the distance to make sure the girl couldn't hear them.

"Son of a bitch," Elliot muttered, his eyes wide. "The Scenic Route Rapist?"

"Certainly sounds like it. Same vehicle description, same general description of the guy, same MO."

"But this time he let the victim get a good look at his face? No hat?"

"He also called her over while his vehicle was still on the road."

"So he's either getting careless…"

"Or he's losing it. Think about it. The story's been in the media for almost a month now. He doesn't want to get caught, but all of a sudden he spots this pretty young girl out all alone in the early morning. He can't help himself. It's still dark, he figures she won't be able to I.D. him."

"But he doesn't count on her fighting back. He's afraid someone's gonna see or hear, so he takes off before he can do the deed."

"Right after he roughs her up and takes a trophy, same as the others." Olivia shook her head in amazement and disgust. "I'll call Cragen."

"Detectives!"

The two of them turned to see Louisa, the nurse who had spoken to them about Sophie before.

"You have to see this," she said, a grave seriousness in her features and her voice. She held up a large folder and nodded her head to a small room off the hallway they were standing in. They followed her inside, and she pulled a stack of X-rays out of the folder.

"What's up?" Elliot asked.

"We just got the X-rays developed that we took of Sophie." She stuck them onto the lighted view box. Even without medical training, the detectives could tell there was something seriously wrong with the black and white images of her ribs and arms.

"Broken bones?" Olivia frowned at pictures, appraising them.

"They _were_ broken bones."

"What do you mean?"

Louisa indicated several areas on the ribs that looked thicker and lumpier than the rest of her ribcage. "See these? These are old breaks that have since healed. Some are older than others. The thing is…" She turned to face them. "These shouldn't look so crooked and bumpy."

"Meaning?" Elliot asked.

"Meaning these injuries were never treated by a doctor. Someone beat the crap out of this girl and never got her medical attention."

Elliot looked over at his partner. Olivia had the same look of shock and revulsion on her face that he knew he must have on his.

"I'll call Cragen…" she said, shaking her head at the X-rays.

* * *

**Author's Note:** I apologize for any medical errors or location errors. I may have inadvertently taken some liberties in order to shape my plot the way I wanted. Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this beginning chapter. Reviews are very helpful in gauging my audience and planning for the next chapter, hint hint, haha. :)


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: All original characters and such belong to NBC. I own the characters I created as well as the new plot.

**Summary: **Elliot and Olivia respond when a teenage girl is attacked by a serial rapist. Her medical exam, however, brings another crime to light and starts them on a complicated path for justice…

**Chronology: **No specific time; current season possibly

**Pairings: **None right now.

**Rating: **T for situations and probably some mild cursing.

**Author's Note:** Sorry it's been so long, and I apologize for the liberties I'm taking with NYC housing and addresses and such. I felt like you needed an update more than perfectly exact details. Hope you enjoy the new chapter!

* * *

**Subconscious**

Lenox Hill Hospital 

_100 East 77__th__ Street_

_Tuesday, May 3_

_7:33 a.m._

Olivia and Elliot returned to Sophie's room about half an hour later after alerting Cragen, Munch, and Fin to the resurfacing of the Scenic Route Rapist. Everyone back at the precinct was on high alert and an APB had been issued for the vehicle the teenager had described to them.

"Hey Sophie," Olivia greeted her. "You gave us some great information and the rest of our squad is working on it right now."

The teenage girl smiled in relief. "Already?"

"Already."

"Thank you."

"Thank _you_," Elliot replied. "That guy is a very dangerous man, and you did everything right to save yourself and help us track him down."

Olivia smiled and nodded at the girl, then shared a look with Elliot before switching topics. "Now, Sophie…We really need to talk to your parents. Are they at work?"

"No, they work from home."

"They must be worried about you."

"Not yet. I'm not usually home from my run yet."

"We'll still need to tell them what happened."

"I think one of the nurses already did that."

"Louisa?"

"No, another nurse. He had reddish hair and looked really young."

Elliot nodded. "Ok. I'm going to go talk to him and see if he got a hold of them."

When her partner had left the room, Olivia turned back to the teenager and smiled, fishing around for a safe way to discuss her injuries. "So…you like to run?"

She nodded, a shy smile lighting up her features. "It's nice to get out and see the city, and I make great time. I'm not very good at sports in general, but I'm a good runner."

"Are you on the track team at school?"

"No, I'm home-schooled."

"How come?"

"My parents think I'll get a better education at home than in an overcrowded public school."

Olivia smiled. "They may have a point about that. Do you like being home-schooled?"

"It's ok I guess. I don't really know anything different."

"What about friends? Who do you hang around with?"

Sophie licked her lips somewhat nervously and turned her head away before she answered, "Nobody, really."

"Nobody? Not even…your neighbors? The other teenagers in your building?"

"No…"

"How come?"

She took her time answering. "I'm…not…very social." Everything about her, from her lack of eye contact to her posture to the way she fiddled with her nails, said she was lying. Olivia chose not to press the issue just then.

"Sophie…why did you go jogging in jeans this morning?"

"I do it every morning."

"You jog in jeans?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Shorts are immodest."

Olivia tried not to look shocked. "Why?"

"Too much skin. Encourages things."

"Well, what about jogging pants, or sweatpants? Wouldn't they be more comfortable?"

"They aren't good for working in."

"What do you mean, working in?"

"Working. Cleaning, sorting, gardening—things that need done. They're hard to accomplish properly in clothes that aren't sturdy. That's why I wear jeans." She was staring straight ahead, at an empty spot on the wall, and her words lacked any real conviction.

"Ok…" Olivia didn't want to press the issue, but there was something very strange going on. "You're not working when you're jogging, though."

"One should always be prepared." Her eyes widened a fraction and her hands shook, probably because what had happened that morning wasn't something one could prepare for.

The officer brushed some of her short brown hair behind one ear and nodded as she tried to compose her next line of questioning in a way that the girl wouldn't shut down. "Sophie…" she began hesitantly. "Do you…ever play sports?"

Sophie finally focused her gaze back on Olivia, instead of at the wall. "What do you mean?"

"Well, do you ever play basketball in the park, or maybe soccer?"

"I don't really have friends…" Her voice held a hint of wariness.

"That's the beauty of city parks," Olivia smiled, trying to put her at ease with friendliness. "You don't really have to have anybody to play with—there's usually a group of strangers that just make up an impromptu team."

Sophie slowly shook her head. "No…I don't play sports. I run."

"Ok. What about…have you ever been in a car accident?"

She frowned. "No, never. We don't have a car."

"All right. What about another type of accident? Have you ever fallen off a ladder or down some stairs?"

She shook her head, now looking truly worried. "No. Why, what's going on?"

"Well, there were some old injuries on your X-rays, and we're not sure where they came from."

* * *

After nearly ten minutes of waiting and multiple questionings, a woman at the nurses' station was finally able to tell Elliot which nurse he needed to look for. He met up with him outside the pediatric unit.

"Kyle Vincent?"

The young man turned around. "Yes officer?"

"I've been told that you were the one attempting to make contact with Sophie Morse's parents."

"Yes sir."

"Did you?"

"I've called six times at intervals of five, ten, and twenty minutes, but I keep getting a 'number disconnected message'. No one's picking up."

Elliot frowned. "Ok…do you have the number?"

The nurse retrieved a small piece of blue paper from his pocket. "This is it."

"And you're sure it's right?"

He held up his hands. "It's what the girl told me."

"Ok, thanks. I'll keep trying."

Kyle Vincent nodded and headed down the hallway.

* * *

"I dunno Elliot…it's so strange. She's doing everything but throw damn Bible verses at me, but even she looks like she knows it's a bunch of crap."

Olivia stood with her partner outside of the girl's recovery room as he punched the phone number on the scrap of paper into his cell. "You think they're some sort of religious weirdos?"

"Maybe…I don't know. She never actually mentioned religion, so it could just be some twisted sense of a work ethic. Although she said that too much skin 'encouraged things'."

Elliot stopped dialing. "Do you think she blames herself for the attack?"

"I don't think so. The way she was talking, her outfit is plenty modest. But again, the whole time she's giving me this spiel or manifesto or whatever, she's staring off into space with this look on her face. I think she was just repeating what her parents have been drilling into her head for the past fifteen years and trying to pretend like they were her beliefs too. And get this." She leaned in towards Elliot, keeping one eye on the door to the recovery room. "By her own admission, she's got no friends, no life outside her house, doesn't even know anybody else in their building."

He frowned and finished entering the numbers into his phone. "Something is definitely up in that house. Let's see what mommy and daddy have to say." He waited as the call rang through and then frowned some more. "Number disconnected," he repeated aloud for Olivia's benefit. He tried twice more before conceding to defeat. "The nurse was right. Something is definitely going on here. I think we need to take a little road trip out there, see what's up."

Olivia's cell rang before she could do more than nod in reply. She flipped it open and pressed it to her ear, placing her free hand over her other ear as a medical cart rattled by. "Detective Benson. Yes chief." Her eyes widened as she listened to the half of the conversation Elliot couldn't hear. "And you're absolutely sure? Right, right. Yeah, we'll be right there." She glanced up at Elliot, then back towards the room. "I can probably get her released in a couple hours. It sounded like the doctors wanted to keep an eye on her. No. Yeah, we think we're gonna have to drop by the address, see what's going on. Ok, yeah, we'll be right there."

Her partner tipped his head towards her in expectation.

"That was Cragen," she said, snapping her phone closed and slipping it into her pocket. "They picked up a guy who matches all known descriptions of the Scenic Route Rapist, especially the details Sophie gave us."

"What?"

"Yep. They're waiting for us back at the station to interrogate him."

"So we leave her here?"

"Well, I am going to go talk to her doctor and see if they'll release her now to make an I.D. If not, we interrogate him, hopefully get a confession, drop by Sophie's place, see what these parents of hers are like, then hopefully by that time she'll be ready to come pick him out of a lineup. Even if we get a confession, it'll make the case that much stronger."

* * *

27th Precinct

_Interrogation Room 1_

_Tuesday, May 3_

_9:44 am_

The doctor wanted to keep Sophie at least a few more hours to make absolutely certain that she wasn't suffering some hidden injury from the attack, so Olivia and Elliot were back at the station ten minutes later, watching as Fin wrestled a guy of medium build with close-cropped blond hair and silver glasses into an interrogation room.

"I didn't do anything!" he squealed.

"The hell you didn't," Fin said. "Sit down, scumbag."

"Hey Fin," Elliot said with a grin. "Where'd you find this guy?"

"Watchin' girls from behind a tree in the park," Fin replied, clearly disgusted. "Takin' pictures, too."

"I was birdwatching!" the man insisted.

"Birdwatchin' my _ass_," the detective commented.

"Got anything to say for yourself, Mr…?" Olivia looked at Fin for an answer.

He tossed a wallet in an evidence bag on the table in front of them. "Gordon Wallace."

"I didn't do anything!" he insisted.

Olivia and Elliot shared a silent look, agreeing with one another that this guy was full of crap and matched every description they'd heard of the Scenic Route Rapist.

"Got another present for you guys," Fin continued. He reached behind him and pulled out another evidence bag. "This one might be my favorite." He swung it by one corner, and then tossed it to Elliot.

Elliot caught it easily, and with a smile. He showed it to the room. "Nice pink iPod," he announced with a sarcastic grin. "With an adorable Scooby-Doo sticker on the back. You know, this looks strangely similar to the description of a missing iPod I just got… "

Gordon Wallace seemed to lose the ability to speak for a moment.

"Took this off Sophie Morse, huh?"

The suspect remained silent, growing surly.

"Well that's just fine," Olivia commented breezily with a smile. "We've got your prints and your DNA and we'll just wait for it match the evidence in all those cases we have pending."

Gordon's eyes widened but he kept his mouth shut.

"C'mon Gordon, nothing you want to say?" Elliot teased.

"No alibi?" Liv asked.

"I want a lawyer," he finally sputtered.

"You're gonna need one," Fin said.

"Ah, c'mon Gordon. You don't wanna talk to us?" Elliot smiled.

He'd resumed his silence.

Liv looked at her partner and shrugged. "Works for me. Let's go."

The three of them left the room, leaving Gordon Wallace fidgeting in the interview room, eyes darting around the space nervously. "We've got him," Elliot confirmed unnecessarily.

"It's just a matter of time," Fin agreed. "Once those samples get run a jury's gonna throw away the key. Look, I've got things handled here if he ain't gonna talk. Cragen said you two were gonna head over to that girl's place since her parents weren't answering the phone."

"Sounds great," Olivia said, grabbing her jacket off a chair. "Thanks Fin!"

* * *

Apartment of Morse Family

_103 South 81__st__ Street_

_Tuesday, May 3_

_10:22 am_

The address they had led them to a nondescript red-brown series of small apartment-like houses squished together, with a small garage to one side and a small yard enclosed by a tall wooden fence on either side. Olivia and Elliot left their car slowly, taking in every detail they could. Olivia led the way up the small set of stairs to number 103. She knocked on the door, waited, rang the bell, waited, and tried knocking again.

There was no response.

She was frowning, about to try the bell again, when Elliot tugged on her sleeve. "Liv, look at this." He pointed at the window to the right of the door. They had to lean over the stair railing to get a glimpse inside, but that glimpse was telling.

"Everything's gone," she said as she leaned over the rail in imitation of him, her eyes wide with surprise. From the little they could see inside the house, there was no furniture, no carpet, no knickknacks on the walls. But there also wasn't any dust or indication that the dwelling had been like this long. It looked like everything had been abruptly sucked out by a tornado.

They merely stood looking around for a minute or two, before Olivia asked her partner, "Do you smell something burning?"

He sniffed the air, as did she, and they peered carefully at the house, but the smell did not seem to be coming from inside. "It's close by," he said with a frown.

"I think I see smoke," she added, and pointed. "I think it's coming from the side yard."

They rushed down the steps around to the fence that separated the sidewalk from the side yard. Elliot tried the gate, half-expecting to have to scale the fence, but it opened easily. They drew their guns as a precaution, nodded in agreement to one another, and rushed through.

The yard was made up of patchy, pathetically green-yellow grass, and empty minus a half of a metal drum with wisps of gray smoke rising from it. They approached it with caution, but when they peered over, they found that it was barely burning.

They recognized photos of Sophie on top of a pile of papers.

"Quick, get everything out there," Olivia instructed, already reaching into the drum with her bare hands. She batted at the small flames to extinguish them.

Elliot reached in to help, and between the two of them they lifted four armfuls of material out of the drum. They patted out a few more embers and picked some large rocks out of the yard to hold the stacks down. Then they stood quietly for a moment, uncomprehending, surveying photos of Sophie, artwork that could only be from a child, papers with her name on them, and what looked like a birth certificate and a social security card.

"What the _hell_ is going on?" Olivia asked.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Thanks for sticking with me! Hope you enjoyed, and it would be great to hear from you.


	3. Chapter 3

_Disclaimer: All original characters and such belong to NBC. I own the characters I created as well as the new plot._

**Summary: **Elliot and Olivia respond when a teenage girl is attacked by a serial rapist. Her medical exam, however, brings another crime to light and starts them on a complicated path for justice…

**Chronology: **No specific time

**Pairings: **None right now.

**Rating: **T for situations and probably some mild cursing.

**Author's Note:** I know I start every one of these off with an apology, but…it happens. Less than stellar summer, senior year insanity, take your pick. I really am sorry. I hate disappointing people. I'm really trying to do better—see end note for more details. Thanks to Jisbonforever for giving me the motivation to write this!

* * *

**Subconscious**

_27th Precinct_

_Tuesday, May 3_

_11:37 am_

Elliot brushed ash from his suit jacket and shook his head as Olivia spread out the dozens of evidence bags containing the singed papers they'd recovered from the Morse family apartment.

"What is all this?" Cragen asked.

Olivia straightened up and sighed. "Sophie's entire life, as far as we can tell."

Fin frowned at the stacks. "Damn."

"And you found it all lit on fire?" Munch asked.

"Yep, but they didn't do too good a job," Elliot replied, picking up a simple watercolor of a flower on a hill with a sun and a rainbow and fluffy clouds in the background that had one singed corner. "Looks they tried to douse everything in gasoline but they were in such a hurry almost nothing got wet. Plus they only used two matches."

Munch picked up a math worksheet with _sOPhiE_ written sloppily across the top. "Why would someone try to destroy her entire past?"

"Excellent question," Olivia said. "But I think a better one is: Where the hell are the parents?"

"Fin, how're you coming on those records?" Cragen asked, striding towards a white board they'd set up in the middle of the room, displaying a picture of a frightened and uncertain-looking Sophie from the hospital and the little information they'd gathered on her and her family.

"Can't get anything outta the housing authorities," he said tapping the phone on his desk. "Parents' names don't appear on any rent agreements, and the rent was always paid with an envelope of cash left in the landlord's mailbox. Guy's not even sure what they look like."

"Great. Where's that leave us?" Olivia tossed a legal pad on her desk in frustration.

Munch stood up from where he'd been leaning against his desk, arms crossed, absorbing the conversation and gave her a meaningful look. "We've got Sophie."

* * *

_27th Precinct_

_Tuesday, May 3_

_1:08 pm_

Olivia gently guided a wide-eyed Sophie, looking much younger than fifteen as she clutched a jacket to her neck and hunched over as though to appear smaller, over to a chair she'd pulled up next to her desk. She gestured for the girl to sit, but it took her a minute to follow the detective's instructions, seemingly frozen by all the organized chaos of a police station in midday.

"Can I get you anything honey?" she asked gently.

"Uhh…" Sophie bit her thumbnail and stared at Munch as he brought a cup of coffee to his own desk.

"Sophie?"

She looked back at Olivia, her blue eyes seemingly paler.

"Are you hungry? Thirsty?"

"I…I'll be okay."

"Did you have anything at the hospital?"

"No…"

Liv smiled, trying to break through the strange protective shell that seemed to encase the teenager. "You must be hungry then. Breakfast was a long time ago."

"I can't cause any trouble." She spoke to Olivia's knees.

"Sophie, it's no trouble. What do you like?"

The question startled her and she stared at the desk, eyes darting, fingers twitching.

"Sandwiches? Soup? Chinese? Mexican?"

"I…" she looked up, again so oddly like a small child. "I like…pork-fried rice?"

Olivia smiled. "We can do that. Let me make a phone call." She dialed a local place that they often used and arranged for it to be delivered within the next twenty minutes. She hung up the phone and turned back to the girl. "It'll be here soon. I got a little something for me too. I completely forgot about lunch, it's been so busy around here."

Sophie nodded, distracted.

"Are you okay? Did you get some pain pills from the hospital?"

"Yeah, but they said I can just use the ice packs if I want. They said everything should go away soon. Nothing's broken, just bruised." She looked at the floor, probably recalling what Olivia had told her earlier about her x-rays, then shook her head and glanced up at the detective. "Why am I here again?"

"Well, for one, we'd like you to identify the man who attacked you. We have very strong evidence, including DNA, but we might be able to get him to confess sooner if you pick him out of a lineup. That way he'll go to jail sooner and he can't hurt anybody else."

Sophie sat up straighter, as though outside conflict weighed so much less than the internal variety.

At that moment, Elliot appeared in the doorway and nodded at the pair of them. "They're ready whenever she is."

Sophie stood up and crossed her arms. "Show me."

It had taken her all of thirty seconds to identify Gordon Wallace as the man who'd attacked her. That knowledge led the suspect to break down and confess, and he was in booking before Sophie and Olivia made it back to her desk to pay for their lunch.

The teenager, for all her earlier protests, dug into her pork-fried rice like a polite but starving animal. Olivia sat back for a moment with her chopsticks and just watched her.

When she came up for air, something appeared to have triggered a memory that was pulling her back into her shell. "Where…where are my parents?" she asked, barely more than a murmur and painfully hesitant.

Olivia stabbed at spring roll. "Well, Sophie," she cleared her throat. "Like we told you, we still can't get in touch with them."

"You tried calling?"

She nodded. "Many times."

"Well," Sophie said, suddenly fascinated by the writing on the side of the takeout container. "You know. Sometimes…they get busy."

The detective bit her lip thoughtfully before she decided to proceed, with extreme caution. "Sophie…they weren't at the address you gave us either."

Her eyes finally met Olivia's. "Wha—well, maybe they…they're out, you know, sometimes they go for…they like to get groceries, you know together…"

"Sweetheart…your house was empty." She leaned forward and gently rested a hand on the girl's arm. "There were no people, there was no furniture, no books, no pictures, just…nothing. We don't know where they are."

Sophie looked like that cliché deer in the headlights, betrayal and fear etched into every contour of her face. "But they…"

"I'm sorry."

The girl tried to speak, but her voice caught and she had to try again. "Maybe…something, something bad happened to them. Are you looking?"

"We are considering that," Olivia fibbed gently. Truth of the matter was, they'd considered it and mostly rejected the notion, given the empty apartment and massive amounts of childhood paraphernalia that they'd attempted to dispose of. Unless they received a ransom note or saw some video footage to convince them otherwise, Sophie's parents were now their number one suspects for a crime that had been committed against the girl. What crime, they couldn't yet be sure. But something terrible had happened, and the entire SVU was committed to finding out what it was and giving this girl back some semblance of a normal life.

Sophie nodded slowly, returning her gaze to the floor.

"You miss them," Olivia stated, trying not to let her suspicion of the couple show through in her speech.

Sophie murmured, "They're my parents."

"Of course…" The detective removed a legal pad from a desk in her drawer and located a pen hidden among the debris cluttering the top of her desk. "Can you tell me about them?"

The girl raised her head a little, a partial smile creasing one corner of her mouth. "Mother has the prettiest hair. It's dark red and it goes all the way to her waist. She likes to sing. We sing together sometimes, hymns and things."

Olivia gave her a little smile back. "Is she the one who taught you about work and modesty and stuff like you were telling me about earlier?"

She nodded. "She wants me to be a good person."

"That's a good goal." Liv scribbled a few notes. "What about your dad?"

Her eyes darkened a little. "Father is a lot older than mother. His hair is gray, and he wears glasses. He doesn't like to sing, and he doesn't talk a lot. He prefers to read the newspaper." She seemed to realize how dark a picture she'd painted, and quickly added, "He also wants to help me be a good person. He makes rules to keep us safe. And he's a very good salesman. He started his own business on the computer."

"Oh yeah? What kind of business?"

"He…sells things."

"What kind of things?"

"Just…lots of little stuff. With personalized writing on them. And symbols and stuff."

"Okay. Can you think of any reason why they would suddenly have to leave, take everything with them, not tell you where they were going?"

Her voice shook and an infant tear swelled in each eye. "No."

"All right," she replied gently. "What else do you remember about your parents? Tell me about when you were little." Olivia toyed with her pen, making a determined effort to keep things light and pleasant. There might be a lot of dangerous things in this girl's past, things that could tell them what crime they needed to be prosecuting, what had happened to this girl, where her parents had disappeared to, if they were involved in something, why every bit of this girl's young life had been dumped into a metal barrel and set on fire, intended to disappear forever into the sky as soft gray ash.

Sophie furrowed her forehead deeply. "I…I remember going to the park to do my first biology lesson. We caught frogs and minnows."

She made a little note on a legal pad. "That's good…how old were you?"

The girl frowned for a long moment. "Twelve," she finally said.

"Anything earlier than that?"

There was a bit of worry in her eyes as she squinted, trying to remember. "We…visited…this big church. I was…um, eleven."

Liv kept her voice light. "Nothing from when you were…nine? Maybe...six?"

Sophie's eyes darted around. "No…" She looked up, masking the fright behind a poor excuse for a smile. "Mother says I have trouble remembering things from so long ago because I'm so mature for my age."

"I see." She scribbled another note. "So your earliest memory is…?"

"When I was eleven. Mother says there's no room in my head everything because I'm learning so much in my lessons now. And I'm mature, so I don't need all those things from when I was little."

"Okay. But surely your parents must tell you stories from when you were little?"

The girl smiled a little at that. "Of course. And they show me my old artwork. It's funny how I still can't draw trees. I was a very quiet baby, they tell me all the time. Really well behaved. Which was good for them, because they used to move around a lot. I think father used to travel to sell things."

Olivia nodded and made an underlined notation on the pad. There was no way to tell for sure how much of what the girl had been told might be total crap, but it gave them a few possible starting points. Maybe there was enough truth hidden in there to give them something.

* * *

After they'd finished their food, Olivia left Sophie in the care of a social worker and went to find her partner.

Elliot was standing with Fin outside of the documents lab when she found him. "So what did you get from her?"

"Basic physical descriptions of the parents, couple possible leads as to past identities, maybe a way to track their movements over the past couple months. She never said anything about abuse, but you can tell from her body language, her voice, that they're not precisely her favorite people in the world, no matter what she's actually saying. I got more of the religion and the work ethic stuff, but it's just so jumbled. Usually you've got your straightforward religious nuts or weird cult members…"

"But?" Elliot asked.

"But…I don't know. None of it seems coherent. But not because it's just so crazy, more like…there's no constancy to it. Some bits of it seem to contradict others. There doesn't seem to be any sort of hard and fast formula to it. There's no…bible, no manifesto, no code. Just these loose ideas." She shook her head. "I don't know. After just half an hour of hearing the stuff, I was all turned around. No wonder Sophie's so odd. Imagine hearing that stuff for years on end." She paused.

"What is it?"

"Another interesting fact came up." She looked from Elliot to Fin and back again for emphasis. "Sophie can't remember anything before she was eleven."

"What?" Fin frowned.

She nodded. "Anything before four years ago—totally blank."

"Might give us a good place to start…" Elliot said, his voice trailing into segue mode.

"What did you guys get?"

"I ran these docs past QD," Fin said, presenting the bags containing the girl's social security card and birth certificate to his fellow detectives. "Somethin' didn't feel right."

"And?"

"And they're forgeries. Good ones, but definitely fake."

"Damn." Olivia stared at the intricate printing on the border of the birth certificate. "So she might not even be Sophie Morse at all. Or for that matter, we may not be looking for a Mr. and Mrs. Morse. They could be anybody." She cursed again, shaking her head at the strange revelation and the newly added difficulty to an already very strange case.

"Exactly. But if you can believe it, things get even weirder. Somethin' about the kid's pictures didn't feel right either. I ran 'em past Elliot first, and something didn't seem right to him either. And he's got kids, he should know."

"What did you find?"

"They're not kid's pictures," Elliot said with a grimace, presenting the one of the flower on a hill in its plastic evidence bag. "They're forgeries too."

"Wait, what?" Olivia stared.

"The brush strokes," Elliot replied. "The size of the smears on the finger paintings, the overtly bad misspellings and misshapen letters on the homework—all done by an adult. Or, two adults."

Olivia shook her head, looking from the forged documents to the faked paintings. What little they'd thought they'd known was false. "We're back to square one…" she murmured. "Who is this girl?"

* * *

Author's Note: Sorry again about the awful delays. I'm trying to get into the good habit of writing every day, so hopefully there will be at least several one-shots for various shows/books/movies forthcoming. Please feel free to message me and request stories to be updated. I take such requests seriously and they motivate me. That's how this chapter got up! I'm not saying that I'll only update if people get after me about it, but I am saying that you shouldn't be afraid to send reminders. With everything that I have going on, I am prone to forgetfulness. Thanks for reading! I'm grateful to each and every one of you.


End file.
